BRADENTON, Fla. - The Pirates played to an 11-11 tie with the Blue Jays today at LECOM, with the most encouraging thing being Gerrit Cole's five inning start. Cole gave up just one run on five hits, with no walks and five strikeouts. He was using an approach that was similar to what you'd see during a game in the regular season, and any sign of success with that approach is good to see after the year he had last year.

"I think he moved into that form today," Pirates' Manager Clint Hurdle said about Cole's approach. "Once you know you're going to try and get stretched out to five innings, you're going to throw all of your pitches, you're going to compete. I liked the right-on-right changeups. He did some things today that were just fun to watch. The velocity, the finish, the execution, b...

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